Chapter 2: Perfect Family

Outside the high and luxurious royal palace of Mormial, at the gate that existed on the wall separating the noble layer from the royal layer, an encounter that wasn't even considered by both parties involved took place, one that caused confusion to one of the parties.

This left the guards and the man with Alaric not knowing what to do or what was even going on.

"Sylvia?…" Alaric could only utter that word, as the name was the only thing that escaped his clouded mind as the shock of the moment slowly settled.

"Young master Ala-… I mean, Sir, it's good to see you again, you sure have grown into a fine young man." Sylvia replied almost losing her composure for a second there.

There was no response from Alaric as he just looked at Sylvia and then Luscious, frowning as he clenched his fists.

(I should kill this guy, but there are royal guards here, and even Sylvia… I would be neutralized before I knew what was going on…

(What do I do? Why is Sylvia working for these people? She left soon after I turned 8 after Father's treatment of her, never went back to what it used to be… to think she would end up working for him of all people… I was so focused on my training that I never stopped to think of her…) Alaric thought of the situation trying to understand how things got here.

"What are you dimwits doing?! I told you to kill this evil creature!" Luscious reaffirmed his command with a face reddened in pure frustration, as he pointed at the boy.

This further confused the guards as they looked at Sylvia the young noble's caretaker for clarification.

After all, they couldn't just kill a guest of the royal palace because a mere baron, much less a baron's son said so without a good reason, even a Duke would need proper justification for such an act.

"Please calm down, young master. You are safe here, and if you want anyone to understand you, an explanation will be needed." Sylvia hugged the young noble as she comforted him.

Witnessing this interaction caused Alaric to frown deeper as the rage he was containing became even more apparent, with veins popping up on his forehead, as he crossed his arms.

"It was him! That bastard tried to kill me! He's the one we've been looking for!" Luscious pointed at Alaric as he yelled with cold sweat all over his face.

"But… That's not possible young master Luscious, as discussed previously it was most likely a gnome or dwarven assassin with a young look, it isn't that uncommon." Sylvia held onto the young noble's shoulders as she talked to him crouched.

"Shut up and listen to me, wench! I'm telling you it's him, so it's him!!" The young noble slapped the maid across her face with a backhand.

The slap echoed throughout the immediate area, and before Luscious knew it, there was a fist-indented on his cheek, as Alaric had dashed at him with vicious red-filled eyes.

This sent the young noble flying and bouncing off the ground a few times before landing.

"Alaric you shouldn'-" Before the maid could finish her sentence it happened.

Pressed face-first against the ground, Alaric was pinned down by one of the royal guards.

"Kid, I like that you tried to defend the lady's honor and all that, but I thought a so-called prodigy would be smarter than attacking a noble in royal ground, don't even make me talk about trespassing since you weren't allowed in yet.

"If you weren't a royal guest, you would have been dead before you got to hit that annoying baron brat." The guard said with a small smile, apparently amused by Alaric's actions.

"Please let go of him, I'm sure a country side kid has no understanding of etiquette, that was the risk of bringing someone like that here." Sylvia got up and while she was talking to the guard walked towards the young noble.

(What just happened?! My body just moved before I could think… What is going on?! It was like a blank…) Alaric was confused, unable to understand how it came to that.

As the maid tended to the young noble, bloodied on the ground, the red liquid coming out of his nose and mouth, with a few knocked-out teeth to be found on the ground.

Soon a green light came from Sylvia's hand as she chanted to heal him, quickly nursing him back to a proper state.

"Execute that barbarian now!!!" Luscious yelled with a look of pure hate for the boy now pinned to the ground.

His scream echoed throughout the whole area.

"Young master, I bid you to reconsider since this boy is a royal guest, it would be wise to first take him to the King and then make your case there." The maid expressed with a troubled face, that was soon replaced by a cold nonchalant.

"I told you to shut up and listen, B*tch! Damn it! Why is this trash a royal guest?!?!" The explosive young noble began punching Sylvia's face and chest, multiple times to let out his frustration.

Nobody did anything as it just happened in silence, the only noise heard was that of Luscious punches hitting the maid.

Such continued for a bit until someone else joined the fray, standing at 185cm(6ft), there was a man with brown hair and a few white strands in between, his expression serious and his posture upright.

The eyes of this man carried no fear or worry simply a tinge of doubt, however, his high-quality suit together with the cane he used to walk didn't let off any of that, only serving to distance him further.

Said man, looking around before sighing with a knowing look, as if he expected something, right before his gaze met Alaric being pinned by the royal guard, however, that did not matter to him, as his eyes lingered on the boy before a smile formed on his face, ever so slightly then disappeared.

His presence caused everyone to stop to look at him, and even the young noble stopped to smile as he ran to the man, and said. "Dad! That's him! The guy we have been looking for! The bastard who tried to kill me!"

"… Oh, is that so? Are you sure of your words?" The man was not surprised, shocked, or otherwise, he simply maintained his demeanor, instead questioning what mattered.

"Huh… Yes! I'm sure!" The boy hesitated for a second and even took a step back seemingly unable to look at his father directly before forcing himself to do so.

"Well, then we have much to discuss. Let go of the boy, he's a royal guest after all. Sylvia, good job in manatain the little heir under control, anyway, bring the prodigy boy." The man waved his hand at the royal guard and Alaric was released before he turned around to go back into the palace.

"But… But Dad… It's him! He tried to kill me!!!" Luscious repeated with a dejected expression.

"That's why we'll talk inside. Come on, don't throw a tantrum, you're an adult now, and even more important, you're a Regali, so act like one." Using his cane to support his steps the man went inside without waiting for a response.

The young noble looked at Alaric, his hate still present, but soon turned around and lowered his head, following his father silently.

As the guards went back to their post as if nothing happened and the man guiding Alaric so far approached him, Sylvia was walking towards him.

"So young Alaric, are you ok?" The man asked a bit hesitant as he almost touched the boy's shoulder but opted not to.

"I'm... Good…" Alaric had a slight frown as he replied.

(That guy was extremely creepy… he made my skin crawl… what is going on with him… not to mention my outburst earlier… this palace just feels like bad news so far…) Alaric sighed internally as he regained his composure.

"Greetings Oscar, I'm happy to see you again. Thank you for taking care of Alaric, he can be quite troublesome, please excuse us, I'll be guiding him from now on." Sylvia said to the man as she stood in from of them both.

"No need, young Alaric was rather pleasant company, well maybe except the one time he almost decapitated me." Oscar responded with a smile.

"He what?!" Sylvia lost her composure looking at both confused.

"It was an accident! Don't worry about it." Oscar clarified.

Meanwhile, Alaric was just looking at her silent, with his eyes narrowed.

"Oh anyway, stay well!" She waved her hand at him.

With that Oscar left, leaving only Alaric and Sylvia near the fourth wall's gate.

"It's nice to see time has treated you well, you're all grown up now. I still remember the first time you looked me in the eyes and smiled. It's nice to see you like this." Sylvia smiled widely as she spoke wholeheartedly.

"You know, I wanted to be mad and question you, but that's so pointless… So, I'll instead ask. How have you been Sylvia?" The tense Alaric sighed before he began talking to her with a weak smile.

A hug was launched his way in response, and he too answered with the same.

"Life has been in a bit of a downside lately as you could probably see." Sylvia smiled as she let go of the hug.

"Yeah, why are you still working for these people in this situation?" Alaric asked.

"We should get going, but to answer your question, I have to right now. If I didn't, do you really think I would have left my number 1 fan?" Sylvia began walking toward the palace as she spoke.

Following up to her lead, Alaric said. "… Really? I thought you left because you were on bad terms with Dad…"

"What?! Of course not. Even if I was, your mother was the one who hired me. So It wouldn't matter enough to get rid of me. Plus your Dad didn't like having me around because I was a distraction, not my words." Sylvia laughed it off looking quite bright under the sun.

"I guess I misread the situation then, It will be nice if you decide to tell me someday." Alaric replied as they reached the palace's door.

To this, Sylvia nodded as they both entered the palace.

From there, she took him through the blue-carpeted corridors of the palace, laced with gold, having its own brand of luxury from art, to sculptures all exposed to the eyes of those passing by as if to show them the relics of a past, marks of a legacy bygone but still standing today, on the legs of its descendants.

Multiple doors one after the other, in a long streak that seemed to just go on. Servants and guards would pass them every so often as they continued to walk.

(What did they say again? The higher you go, the harder you fall… Only if I ever allow myself to fall that is, and this place… will it ever be afforded such fate… I doubt it.) Alaric contemplated as he walked the grand halls of the palace.

In time, he reached a room as Sylvia guided him, opening the door for him. Inside, Baron Regali and his son could be found seated on one of two couches in front of each other, with a coffee table in between.

After Alaric entered the room, so did the maid, who went to stand behind the two nobles, the smile on her face long gone.

"Please take a seat, young man, we have a lot to talk about." Baron Regali spoke as calmly as could as he pointed at the couch in front of him.

(Let's see what he's all about, even a Baron can't just kill a royal guest, so I imagine we'll have to reach a compromise…

(I hate that I can't just rid the world of Luscious, but I can't be any more reckless… My body did more than enough of that… I'll have to look into it with the system later…) Alaric thought to himself as he took a seat on the couch in front of the Baron and his Son.

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-Mormial Royal Palace; Underground Area; Summoning Room-

The other 3 armored individuals, immediately got ready to charge at the red-haired girl, but then.

"Stop! Stop it! Have you forgotten what we came here to do!!?" The young lady in a fancy dress questioned.

Her hair was long, curly, and golden, complemented by her green eyes. She exuded elegance and moved graciously in a quite alluring way, but always maintaining an air of friendliness.

Unlike what some would expect from such a figure, she was actually reasonably muscular, the point, even the orange-haired young man, might actually have competition for who is the most muscular in the room, that is if we exclude the armored individuals.

On her head, a tiara with a golden glint could be found and under that, she had a pink dress with a more classical style, only enchanted by the necklace and long white gloves, she was wearing together with the equally pink high heels.

In the end, her figure was more imposing than her height would suggest as she was 1,60cm(5'2ft).

This made all of the armored people stop, as wouldn't dare disobey a direct order like that, unless absolutely necessary.

Following this, the blond young lady stood in front of the currently confused people, while her armored knights were paying close attention to the still-armed red-haired girl.

"I'm very sorry to all of you for such an unpleasant surprise. I'm sure you're all somewhat confused and or scared, and I just wanted to reassure you, that we mean no harm to any of you.

"If you have any questions about the current situation, I'll answer them to the best of my abilities, but before that allow me to introduce myself. I'm Merilyn Ven Mormial, the 3rd princess of the Mormial Kingdom." Merilyn spoke calmly and made sure to bow as if she had just finished a show, once she was done speaking, she coughed slightly and lifted her dress only as much as necessary.

"What's going on?! Don't even get me started on where we are?... Why do you people bring us here? And... How?! I was supposed to be dead!" Heather immediately posed her questions.

Even though some seemed to want the ask something else, the silence was left to dominate as they were more interested in getting answers for the first questions and then thinking about asking their own.

"To put it simply, you have all experienced death, and were judged by one of the Gods, to be worthy of becoming heroes in our world. You see, you are no longer in your own world and instead find yourselves in ours, Mirth... More specifically in the Crismentia continent, and in our Kingdom, Mormial, at the capital city of Raphal.

"The why is something we can get into once we reach the throne room, but know that this world is in grave danger. How?...

"Well, I myself am not all too familiar with the specifics, but it seems your souls were caught in the ceremony using the cosmic alignment to power it, giving you a new physical vessel and we on this side opened a pathway for that physical vessel new containing the soul, to enter our world... At least that's the theory. I hope these answers are what you were looking for." Merilyn explained, answering almost all the questions with a smile on her face, and the sweetest of tones in each word said.

Heather, Leopold, and Fritz all had the same expression and dissatisfaction carrying the words 'Am I supposed to believe that?' as if their intelligence had just been insulted.

The red-haired girl on the other hand had the same cold expression and was still on high alert with her musket ready if needed.

"I understand your disbelief, that is why I bid you to say or think the words 'Status Screen' and you will see that what I say is the truth.

"Even still, if that is not enough, I have another way to prove the veracity of my words." Merilyn expressed being calm and understanding of their side of things.

It was quite obvious that the reason no one had snapped yet was the presence of the armored knights and the armed child.

""Status screen"" Heather and Leopold said out loud, while it seemed Fritz instead chose to think about it.

All of them showed different degrees of surprise at what followed, but it was a surprise nonetheless.

"Did we get sent into a video game?" Fritz was the first one to comment on it.

"This is insane... Are we really seeing this?... Gods, reincarnation, and now this…" Leopold was in complete disbelief.

"This makes no sense?... Why is this happening? I wasn't even supposed to be here, especially not worth these people…" Heather was simply confused even further.

Having been faced with this odd reality, the three of them, weren't sure how to feel at all. Being faced with a reality and life that should have ended for all of them, a second chance they didn't ask for was thrown at them.

The silence permeated the room to a level it had not before since they woke up in this weird place.

"Take your time. I can't imagine how you must feel, to discover something like this happened. Whenever you feel ready people call for us.

"Oh and your meals will be brought to you in a while, so you don't have to worry about that." Merilyn announced before leaving with her knight who carried the frozen knight out of the room, before locking the metal door again.

-Later-

The food had already been delivered and consumed, but silence was still a major point in the room. The expressions weren't the best and it wasn't expected that it would get any better, anytime soon.

"Hey Dad… What now?" Fritz asked Leopold.

"I don't know… I'm not even sure if I can be called your father anymore… I mean... We did die, right? I'm just as lost as you…

"I guess we can take what the universe gave us… Or we can try the way out again… It wasn't my plan to die anyway, so I guess I'll live this new life…" Leopold looked at Fritz with a weak and tired expression that carried nothing but his sense of confusion.

"... You're really not helping with that attitude. Then again, I don't think we're getting what we had back… I don't know what happened for you all to end up dead as well, but I know I'm not letting life get taken away from me again.." Without being prompted to, Fritz expressed himself with a tone of longing.

"Your brother happened, that's what happened. If he didn't get you killed maybe things would have been better." Leopold responded letting out a sigh.

"… Where is he?! What do you mean got me killed?" Fritz asked.

"I don't know and honestly don't care. A child who would give his own brother up for criminal is no child of mine." Leopold said raising his hand to indicate he did not want to hear anymore.

"He didn't mean to… Things just got out of control…" Fritz responded with a frown.

"So out of control, he had to lead you to your death?" Leopold asked completely unconvinced.

Once again their words were followed by silence, as Fritz could not bring himself to answer simply frowning, and stopping to think.

In time, Fritz got up and walked to his sister and asked. "You don't believe that, right? You don't think he just wanted to kill me, right?! He would never do that! He was our brother, no, he is our brother, right?!"

"After you died, I talked to him. He took you there because of her, even though you believed in that loser, he betrayed you for some horrible… it's all their fault, that fake brother and that b*tch who stole his heart!" Heather was red and hugged Fritz as she spoke her voice tearing with each word.

"That's... No… I know him, I understand him more than you guys, he was not the person you think." Fritz insisted on refusing to accept the reality they threw at him.

"I know you want to believe in that loser, but you just have to accept the reality. He was always awful, disgusting, and the absolute worst." She talked with visible frustration and even a few tears let out, as she let go of him.

This caused Fritz to cover his face with his hands as he thought of the situation trying to remember things vividly, but he couldn't.

"It's the reality and you know it! Stop trying to defend your murderer!" She declared even more riled up than before.

"You don't know that… I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for it." Fritz clung to his belief.

"You weren't there, son. Not to mention our memories are scrabbled now… However, the pain of knowing you died… Nothing, not even death would be able to make me forget what I felt for years after that." Leopold added with a frown clearly unhappy at his son's words.

"I... I know what I am saying…" He said with an expression full of doubt.

"Do you?! Cause I am sure you didn't get to experience that loss…" Heather replied to Fritz with an expression full of distance.

From then on they give each other some time.

"I'm sorry… I guess I am just confused…" Under the gaze of both, Fritz could only admit defeat and go quiet.

Meanwhile, that was going on, in their corner the red-haired girl and the black blob were just watching it unfold.

"Fritz… Don't worry… Your brother was punished for his sins. Look? He's now the little monster he always deserved to be. You don't have to feel bad, it's over. That last life ended, but we can be a family all over again, right from the start." The red-haired girl spoke with a wide smile.

Fritz came close and lifted his arms as if to say he came in peace before the words left his mouth. "I don't know about that Mom, it's not like things are that simple. I thought we could, but talking to you, I see you guys changed after I was gone… I guess that couldn't be avoided."

"Lavenica, I know you want things to be what they used to be, but honestly, I don't think that would work, especially since I have no intention of being your husband ever again." Leopold expressed with a look of disdain towards his wife.

"Enough with the stupid stuff mom, I don't know to be your daughter anymore, and honestly, Fritz, I love you bro, but I'm over you. I don't need that messing me up anymore.

"Finally! I'm not being that thing's sister, I don't care if it really is that freak or not! Just stay away from me! You already ruined my life one too many times." Heather followed her father and brother in rejecting the notion.

"You've got to be kidding me... Right? We have the chance to make things right once and for all, and you all just want to throw it away for some selfishness?!" Lavenica seemed to have a hard time smiling for them making it look as forced as it was.

"I guess things aren't that simple. I thought we were a family, but that's the notion of a dead man, so I'll just follow a new path. I hope someday everyone thinks back on this and maybe we could be on good terms then." Fritz replied with his head down.

Meanwhile Heather and Leopold turned their faces away from the conversation, leaving Lavenica to look at them with a forced smile as she held the black blob.

This didn't seem to sit well with her as she began lifting the musket to aim at them…

Chapter end